A famous Japanese based car manufacturer Toyota is known for its reliable and secure sedans for a long time, but it astonished the customers when it made Toyota recall declaration internationally in the year 2009 and 2010. The major reason for the recalls was the critical malfunctioning leading the cars to accelerate frenziedly causing serious casualties.
In the month of November 2009, first recall was announced because the customers were complaining about the accelerator pedals getting trapped in car’s floor mat. The car kept on accelerating even if the driver released the pedal causing chaotic results.
It made news in the auto industry that early Toyota recall comprised of 3.8 million USA cars. Later on the overall impact was stretched to 4.2 million USA cars. This entrapment was taken into account by Toyota and the pedal construct was reworked while the customers were suggested to take away the floor mats when driving. The statistics of the recalled vehicles were: Avalon 2005-2010, Corolla 2009-2010, Camry 2007-2010, Highlander 2008-2010, Matrix 2009-2010, Prius 2004-2009, Tacoma 2005-2010, Tundra 2007-2010 and VENZA 2009-2010
The second major recall took place in January 2010 in which Toyota decided to stop the manufacturing of few of its famous editions of cars. The vehicles’ accelerator pedal got trapped or was very slow to resume its position when released. The affected USA cars reached 2.3 million in number. Overall impact of the faulty accelerator pedal and mat trap affected 1.7 million USA cars. Internationally in China and Europe, 2 million cars were reported for recall as well. The vehicles reported for recall due to faulty accelerator pedals were: few RAV4 2009-2010, few Corolla 2009-2010, Matrix 2009-2010, Avalon 2005-2010, few Camry 2007-2010, few Highlander 2010, Tundra 2007-2010 and Sequoia 2008-2010.
In response to the serious road accidents and causalities Toyota tried to curb the situation in a lighter way. The customers were suggested to handle the vehicle carefully because the problem occurred due to worn out accelerator pedal. When the driver finds that the vehicle’s accelerator is difficult to slow down or revisit its position then the vehicle should be parked to a safer place. Then for help nearest Toyota dealership should be contacted. It was also advised to the drivers that if the car gears up frenziedly then stable force should be exerted on the brakes otherwise car should be powered off or put it into a neutral gear.
In early February 2010, the customers were mailed about the further details of the Toyota recall. To eradicate the trapped accelerator pads, new stainless steel fortification bars were manufactured and these services were taken from Stamping and GR Spring in the facility of Grand Rapids, Michigan. All over in USA few of the repair parts were distributed to the dealerships and other factories. All the expenses involved in the recall process were born by the Toyota itself and it took 30 minutes to repair the affected vehicle. Therefore, Toyota dealerships should be contacted at the earliest by the owners to repair their vehicles and for further details.